A WECKMAN and others Autophagy in the endocrine 52:2 R151–R163 Review glands Autophagy in the endocrine glands Andrea Weckman, Antonio Di Ieva, Fabio Rotondo1, Luis V Syro2, Leon D Ortiz3, Kalman Kovacs1 and Michael D Cusimano Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, St Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Correspondence 1Division of Pathology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, St Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, should be addressed Ontario, Canada to A Di Ieva 2Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Pablo Tobon Uribe and Clinica Medellin, Medellin, Colombia Email 3Division of Neurooncology, Instituto de Cancerologia, Clinic Las Americas, Medellin, Colombia
[email protected] Abstract Autophagy is an important cellular process involving the degradation of intracellular Key Words components. Its regulation is complex and while there are many methods available, there is " autophagy currently no single effective way of detecting and monitoring autophagy. It has several " endocrine glands cellular functions that are conserved throughout the body, as well as a variety of different " crinophagy physiological roles depending on the context of its occurrence in the body. Autophagy is also " endocrine diseases involved in the pathology of a wide range of diseases. Within the endocrine system, autophagy has both its traditional conserved functions and specific functions. In the endocrine glands, autophagy plays a critical role in controlling intracellular hormone levels. In peptide-secreting cells of glands such as the pituitary gland, crinophagy, a specific form of autophagy, targets the secretory granules to control the levels of stored hormone. In steroid-secreting cells of glands such as the testes and adrenal gland, autophagy targets the steroid-producing organelles.